THE

Ohio State University has been awarded a trademark on the word "THE".

https://thehill.com/homenews/wire/3533116-the-ohio-state-awarded-trademark-on-three-letter-word/

Articles all appear to be pretty sensationalist. It's tough to see what is *actually* trademarked.

It appears to apply exclusively to the word "THE", not "The" or "the" used on “clothing, namely, T-shirts, baseball caps and hats; all of the foregoing being promoted, distributed, and sold through channels customary to the field of sports and collegiate athletics."

So it looks like this would not apply to something like a Notre Dame shirt that says "The Fighting Irish" or even "THE FIGHTING IRISH" on it. But would if you did a shirt that just said "THE" with the Notre Dame Fighting Irishman on it.

I've seen people freaking out. This reminds me a lot of Lagunitas defending and winning trademark over the use of "IPA" on bottles. It didn't prevent anyone from calling a beer an "IPA" or labelling it as such. It just applied to very specific style of displaying "IPA" in bold letters on a neutral background specifically as a logo.

As if people needed another reason to dislike OSU.

In reply to KyAllroad :

Yeah... as a transplant to Columbus, whenever the OSU / Michigan rivalry pops up, I look at the general content and tenor of comments from both sides and want to say to my Ohio fan friends, "Y'all know you're the bullies here, right?"

I am only mildly annoyed by the silliness of the whole matter. 

the movie idiocracy looks to be more foreboding today than it ever has 

Die-hard Michigan Wolverine here. As a trolling move, I have to tip my cap. They know they are the villains, and they are embracing it.

Now I feel dirty...... 

Beer Baron said:

In reply to KyAllroad :

Yeah... as a transplant to Columbus, whenever the OSU / Michigan rivalry pops up, I look at the general content and tenor of comments from both sides and want to say to my Ohio fan friends, "Y'all know you're the bullies here, right?"

That's a whole running gag in Tim Allen's  Last Man Standing series.  His show-wife went to THE Ohio State University and insists on saying it like that any time the subject comes up.  Which it does a lot because Tim went to Michigan.

It's no stupider than University of Miami being The U.

Which is to say, it's pretty damn stupid indeed.

Any time I'm around an Ohio alum or fan, I try to remind them that I went to THE Illinois State University. 

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

I have good friends who were in the OSU marching band. One shared the best way to mess with OSU fans. Whenever they shout "O-H!" just shout "O-H!" right back at them. Confuses the hell out of them.

Reminds me of THE Corvette community trademarking (I think) the term survivor only being allowed to be applied to unrestored Corvettes and no other car. Its stupid and generally ignored. Although when it happened all companies using the term in their ads had to change it.

H.A.M.B.Discusion

I think Ohio state should have thought it through a bit more. 

So, you want your entire university to be described by a single word?

Yes.

Interesting, but ok. What word do you pick?

The.

The what?

The. We pick the word the.

THE can start any sentence but it cannot finish one. 

So, the only word with which you can't end a sentence is "THE?"

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

You can now... "He plans to graduate from THE."  

College and College Football as a whole has some good rituals and traditions.  For a school as big as OSU, they really don't have the best rituals/traditions.  

Ripped from the headlines of the future:

Tonight at the THE the The The.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

So, the only word with which you can't end a sentence is "THE?"

What, the?

Hopefully we start referring to it as T.H.E. instead of O.S.U. 

volvoclearinghouse said:

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

So, the only word with which you can't end a sentence is "THE?"

What, the?

First one is like using a word to define that word, second is clearly less impactful than if you finished it correctly. 

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

THE can start any sentence but it cannot finish one. 

Ohio State has copyrighted the word THE.

How does one spell the word THE?

As a buckeye by birth (but having lived in the south for even longer at this point in my life)..

I still chuckle every time I see a bumper sticker that says

M GO BLOW

The THE stuff is silly. 

As a life long ohioan I'm always impressed with how big of a following the university of Michigan has here. It seems like everywhere you look you see a Michigan t shirt. I think the main reason is because most U of M graduates can wear T shirts to work.

Oh man. THE Penn State people are going to be mad.

My wife, a Penn State grad and sympathizer, swears that Penn State was the first to use the the. When I asked her how she knew this, she just said "because I know." 

The OSU people aren't any better.  

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

THE can start any sentence but it cannot finish one. 

What about "The, Bart, the"?

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

THE can start any sentence but it cannot finish one. 

What about "The, Bart, the"?

And how could anyone who speaks German be a bad person?